building the city
Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 7:22AM 
I have been working for a while with this theme of clusters of houses and buildings all crammed together on the page. Lately ladders have made there way into the mix. I like the image of the ladder as a symbol for our need to connect with the divine. Also, I think this series has something to do with my hunger for a greater sense of community in my own urban living experience. We still have so many neighbors that we will never seem to know. It is as if there are these huge invisible walls that cut us off from each other. We all go about the patterns of our separate lives without any real attempts to connect with each other. This morning a woman came onto my front porch and called to me through the window as I sat writing in my journal. She asked me to call her a cab as her car had broken down somewhere near by. I did call her a cab and offered her a chair on the front porch while she waited. A little later she wanted a glass of water. After about a half hour she asked me to call again to make sure they were really coming and I did that too. The cab eventually came and took her away. It was awkward and an interruption but it was also nice to be able to help a stranger/angel? this morning.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for sharing a bit more about the work - a professor of mine recommended a book by Jacques Ellul, The Meaning of the City.
From the amazon.com review - "In The Meaning of the City he presents what he finds in the Bible — a sophisticated, coherent theology of the city fully applicable to today’s urbanized society. Ellul believes that the city symbolizes the supreme work of man — and, as such, represents man’s ultimate rejection of God. Therefore it is the city, where lies man’s rebellious heart, that must be reformed. The author stresses the fact that the Bible does not find man’s fulfillment in a return to an idyllic Eden, but points rather to a life of communion with the Savior in the city transfigured."
http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-City-Mr-Jacques-Ellul/dp/0802815553
I'm hoping to read the book this summer, but from initial conversations I've been challenged to rethink my love for the city - is it because I want to make a name for ourselves (think Babel), or because I long for the day when Jesus makes all things new - the holy city - and want to be a part of a community that foreshadows that city?
Jim and I also love to get to know our neighbors and wonder why sometimes they seem so hard to get to know. We have some great neighbors here in North Carolina, though, and the more we meet the more it feels like home.